A variety of methods for closing and sealing flexible plastic bags in which bakery products have been devised heretofore. U.S. Pat. No. 3,919,829 discloses a packaging device wherein a wire tie is twisted around the open end of a bag for closing and sealing the bag. The following U.S. patents disclose bag closing apparatus devised to attach a flat flexible rectangular shaped clip having a central opening and a slit communicating therewith around a neck adjacent the open end of the bag:
U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,099,116; 3,163,972; 3,579,955; 3,621,632; 3,910,811; and 4,171,602.
Devices heretofore devised for closing flexible plastic bags have been unduly complicated and in some instances, the speed of application of the devices was limited by jamming of closure apparatus which resulted from the inability of the system to position the bag containing the packaged product and the closure element in a required relationship for completing closing a bag and dispensing the bag. Malfunctions resulted when the product for some reason extended into the area to be closed, for example, if a piece of bread extended into the area to be closed, the bulky nature of the neck of the bag having the piece of bread extending thereinto in many instances could not be handled by the closure apparatus.
Devices heretofore devised have encountered difficulty in positively feeding clips to a precisely controlled position for attachment to a bag.